The upcoming 16th International  XAFS16 International Conference on X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (www.xafs16.org) will be held in Karlsruhe/Germany, August 23-28, 2015.

A 1-day symposium (organized within the main conference) entitled “Current and future opportunities for X-ray spectroscopies at XFELs”, will  provide a broad overview of the current status and challenges for various types of X-ray spectroscopies at the recently operational X-ray Free Electron Laser Facilities (XFELs), including XAFS, non-resonant and resonant XES. The emphasis will be given to ultrafast time-resolved X-ray spectroscopic studies exploiting the unique and unprecedented brightness and ultrashort pulse duration of these 4^th generation light sources exploiting both soft and hard X-radiation. It will also highlight the future opportunities for X-ray spectroscopies in the context of the rapidly improving XFEL technology. 

We are now in the process of finalizing details of the symposium program and we would like to strongly encourage you to submit abstracts to XAFS16 concerning Session 17: “Spectroscopies at XFEL sources, Time-resolved and ultrafast techniques” (see the following link for a list of all topics for abstract submission: http://www.xafs16.org/26.php).

Both invited/contributed talks will be selected from the abstracts, next to poster presentations. The extended deadline for abstract submission for XAFS16 is in a few days only, March 15th, 2015.

Photochemical reactions have tremendous scientific importance, ranging from photosynthesis to atmospheric reactions, and technologies such as sensors or displays. Due to the intrinsic complexity of photochemical reactions, they remain the least understood type of chemical process. Nonadiabatic dynamics, ultrafast time-scales, quantum effects and conical intersections are known to be important, but a detailed comprehension remains elusive. However, new experimental techniques capable of monitoring photochemical processes in unprecedented detail are appearing. This includes the development of intense-laser techniques, the construction of free-electron lasers such as the XFEL in Europe and the LCLS in the USA, new sources of pulsed electrons, advanced detection techniques, and important advances in theoretical modelling of quantum dynamics. Many of these techniques are developed by research communities not traditionally concerned with photochemistry, but provide an opportunity to shed new light on photochemical dynamics.

The themes for the meeting are:

Electronic and non-adiabatic dynamics
Attosecond processes and X-ray spectroscopy
Structural dynamics
Vibrational and condensed phase dynamics

Deadline for abstract submission: Dec. 14, 2015

Confirmed speakers include:
Prof. Dan Neumark (Berkeley), Prof. Dwayne Miller (Hamburg), Prof. Fernando Martin (Madrid), Prof. Shaul Mukamel (Irvine), Prof. Albert Stolow (Ottawa), Dr. Yann Mairesse (Bordeaux), Dr. Mike Minitti (SLAC), Prof. Artem Rudenko (Kansas), Prof. Andrew Orr-Ewing (Bristol), Dr. Junko Yano (Lawrence-Berkeley)

A full research paper containing new unpublished results always accompanies oral presentations at Faraday Discussions. The oral/paper abstract should outline current research in progress. Authors of the selected abstracts must then submit a full research paper with a significant amount of new, unpublished work by 11 April 2016. The research papers and a record of the discussion are published in the journal Faraday Discussions (Impact factor 4.606).

If you are not familiar with the format of Faraday Discussions we suggest you visit the conference website (http://tinyurl.com/ouqlfqj). We look forward to your submissions.

Best regards,
Adam Kirrander and Russell Minns on behalf of the Scientific Committee (Jon Marangos, Nina Rohringer, Olga Smirnova, and Peter Weber)

The 4th  XLIC General Meeting (COST Action CM1204) will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, on March 14-16, 2017. It will also host the final XLIC Management Committee (March 14) and the 3rd Young Scientist Forum (YSF).

ABSTRACTS:
Deadline for the submission of abstracts is January 31st, 2017. Abstracts should be written in English and uploaded via the online form.

REGISTRATION:
Interested participants must register before February 14th, 2017, by filling the corresponding form.  All meeting participants must pay a conference package (including lunch, dinner and coffee) for the days attending the meeting. To proceed with the payment, please, fill, sign and send to reservation@hotelpyramida.cz the following form.

SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM
The conference will consist of lectures given by invited speakers, Young Scientist Forum and 2 poster sessions.
NEW: The draft full scientific program, including timetable, talks and list of poster contributions can be downloaded here: XLIC_GM_2017-ScientificProgram (the most updated version should be checked in the meeting website: http://www.jh-inst.cas.cz/xlic2017/programme).

3rd YOUNG SCIENTISTS FORUM:
There shall be a special half-day session with talks given by young researchers (PhD students and post-docs) on March 15. It will include 12 lectures, out of which 6 oral contributions will be chosen by YSF committee based on submitted abstracts. The deadline for abstract submission for YSF was 31^st January 2017.
Applicants asking for the talk at YSF are also required to submit a short CV which is to be emailed to xlic2017@jh-inst.cas.cz. Abstracts submitted after the deadline will not be considered for the selection.
For more details see http://www.jh-inst.cas.cz/xlic2017/home and  http://www.xlic.eu. You can also contact A. Domaracka (domaracka@ganil.fr).
Selected YSF speakers can ask for financial support from XLIC COST Action.
NEW: The list of young researchers selected to give a talk has been published here: https://xlic.qui.uam.es/?p=3369

ACCOMMODATION:
Due to all-under-one-roof format of the conference, accommodation is also available: both single and double rooms for the price of 65 EUR/night. To book your room, please, fill, sign and send to reservation@hotelpyramida.cz the following form before February 14th, 2017.
More information can be found in the meeting website: http://www.jh-inst.cas.cz/xlic2017/accommodation

FINANCIAL SUPPORT:
The participation of  XLIC MC members and speakers will be supported with Action budget (with the exception of MC Observers coming from IPC Institutions). COST will also fully reimburse those young researchers selected for oral contributions in the Young Scientist Forum and, depending on the budget, we will try to cover also expenses from other young participants.
Participants entitled for reimbursement will receive an official notification before the meeting. We strongly recommend to check the COST rules for reimbursement before incurring any expense in:

• COST Vademecum, page 20-24, and /or
• the instructions on how to fill the Travel Reimbursement Request Form (TRR)

Accommodation and meal expenses will be reimbursed on the basis of flat rates. A reduction on maximum flat rates allowed for this particular meeting has been agreed by XLIC MC. The applicable rates are 100 EUR for accommodation and 20 EUR for meal expenses. For participants staying in cheaper hotels less money can be claimed  by requesting the reimbursement for a smaller number of nights/meals.
For travel expenses actual costs can be claimed on the basis of the receipts provided (any restriction applying to travel expenses will be notified to each participant entitled for reimbursement).

IMPORTANT:
Participants selected for reimbursement are kindly asked to keep their expenses as low as possible to ensure a wide distribution of the Action budget.
The submission of claims shall be done after the meeting, but, for any non-regular expense or doubt you may have, please, better ask in advance (info@xlic.eu). E.g. fligths departure/arrivals from/to places other than where the eligible participant is working/residing, extra meals, nights, taxi expenses, etc. shall not be reimbursed if permission is not requested before the meeting.
Please note that claims submitted later than 30 days after the meeting shall not be considered.

The scientific workshop: “Massive Computation for Ultrafast Molecular Breaking” (MACUMB 2017) will be held in the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain) on 25th and 26th of May 2017.

The scientific program (http://www.macumb.info/programme.html) includes ten invited talks that will be combined with two 3-hours practical sessions in computer rooms. We aim to bring together developers of the state-of-the-art scientific software in the field of quantum chemistry and molecular physics.

Registration is already open and closes on May 15^th, 2017. The registration for the meeting is free for all participants.

You can find detailed information at http://www.macumb.info/

Organizers:
Alicia Palacios, Sergio Díaz-Tendero and Jesús González-Vázquez
Departamento de Química, Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid

The CECAM workshop Seeking synergy between dynamics and statistics for non-equilibrium quantum processes will be held in Paris in June 6th-9th.

One of the major difficulties in achieving an accurate theoretical descriptions of non-equilibrium processes in quantum mechanical systems is framed by the desire to provide a representation of the system of interest that is as realistic as possible, in a manner that is computationally tractable. The coupling of electronic and nuclear motion involving excited states, the quantum nature of the nuclear degrees of freedom, and the application of time-dependent driving forces, are just few examples of the effects that must be addressed in order to simulate these processes. Each of these effects poses unique challenges to theoretical progress. A number of exact and approximate quantum dynamics techniques are being developed and refined in order to provide algorithms that respond to the demand for a balance between computational efficiency and physical accuracy. Currently available techniques are typically based upon two different, but equivalent, formulations of many-body quantum mechanics, the wave function approach or the density matrix picture.

The proposed workshop aims to bring together the two principal molecular quantum dynamics communities (wave-function methods and density matrix approaches). The scope is threefold, (i) to identify and explore common goals and obstacles, (ii) help in fostering new ideas to connect these approaches, and bridge the apparent gap between approximate dynamical and statistical descriptions, (iii) identify possible routes to extend dynamics approaches to the domain of statistics.

At the workshop, experts are asked to uncover the fundamental details of the methods in pedagogical lectures. These lectures will be followed by extensive discussions, during which contributed speakers and participants are welcome to put forth some of their doubts and problems in the relation between dynamics and statistics.

Further information can be at:          https://www.cecam.org/workshop-1483.html

Preliminary invited speakers are:

Nandini Ananth (Cornell University, USA) Sara Bonella (CECAM, Switzerland) Irene Burghardt (Goethe University, Germany) Eitan Geva (University of Michigan, USA) E. K. U. Gross (Max-Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Germany) Raymond Kapral (University of Toronto, Canada) Dvira Segal (University of Toronto, Canada) Jeremy Richardson (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) Graham Worth (University College London, UK)

The two ICPEAC satellite meetings:

• The 25th International Symposium on Ion Atom Collisions (http://atom.curtin.edu.au/isiac)
• International Symposium on (e,2e), Double Photoionization and Related Topics with the 19th International Symposium on Polarization and Correlation in Electronic and Atomic Collisions http://atom.curtin.edu.au/e2epol

still welcome abstract submissions until the end of April. The confirmed invited speakers are available at the respective Scientific Program links.

We look forward to your participation,

Alisher Kadyrov, Chair of ISIAC

Igor Bray, Chair of (e,2e)-pol

The 11th Triennial Congress of the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists will be organised by Prof. Dr. Christian Ochsenfeld (Department of Chemistry, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, LMU, München).

It will take place from 27 August to 1 September, 2017 in Munich, Germany.

WATOC is the largest theoretical and computational conference worldwide and we expect about 1500 participants from all over the world. There will be more than 200 invited lectures, many contributed talks and posters covering a wide variety of cutting edge research topics ranging from method developments to applications, all pushing the limits of modern theoretical and computational chemistry, biochemistry, nanotechnology, and materials sciences.

Both the international advisory committee and the local scientific committee have been set up (www.watoc2017.com) and plenary and invited speakers will soon be selected.

The WATOC2017 will be held in the city center of Munich with both the plenary and parallel sessions under one roof. Munich is located centrally in Europe with the second largest airport (MUC) in Germany offering many direct international and national flights. At the same time, Munich offers safe and easy public transportation facilities.

Besides great science, Munich and its surroundings offer fascinating possibilities for both cultural and outdoor activities.

We hope that you will be able to join us in celebrating the WATOC2017 in Munich – please do subscribe early to the mailing list (http://www.watoc2017.com/newsletter.html) so you can keep posted.

The CECAM workshop entitled ‘Non-adiabatic quantum dynamics: From Theory to Experiments’ (https://www.cecam.org/workshop-0-1638.html) will be held at CECAM HQ in Lausanne, Switzerland from 2nd-6th July 2018.

This workshop aims to consolidate the rapid development in the field of molecular quantum dynamics and increase the synergy between experimentalists and theoreticians in this area. The program features a number of invited presentations from leading theoreticians and experimentalists and will be supplemented by a number of talks selected from submitted abstracts.

We are looking forward to welcoming you to Lausanne.

Tom Penfold on behalf of all of the co-organisers.